1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to oleanolic acid derivatives as an active ingredient for prevention or treatment of hepatitis C, and in particular relates to the oleanolic acid derivatives containing a saccharide group as an active ingredient for prevention or treatment of hepatitis C.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) through drug injection or contaminated blood products, resulting in hepatitis combinations, such as jaundice, decreased appetite, fatigue, abdominal pain or abnormal liver function. An estimated 3% of people worldwide (about 3 millions) are infected with hepatitis C (according to WHO), but most have few symptoms at the early stage without diagnoses. About 20% of people recover from the disease by self-clearing the virus after infection. Up to 80% of persons develop chronic hepatitis, in which 20% result in cirrhosis.
Current treatment uses conventional and long-effect interferon and ribavirin to control chronic viral hepatitis. It is known that the treatment of interferon shows bad response rates following continuous administration and drug-resistance and also causes severe side effects, such as retinopathy, thyroiditis, acute pancreatitis, depression, etc. A combination of interferon and ribavirin has been used but the side effects are not decreased. There is a need for new drugs useful in the prevention or treatment of hepatitis C infection with few side effects.
There is a need to develop novel compounds for the prevention and treatment of hepatitis C infection.